Ex-GIO staffer impeached in Control Yuan about-face

By Flora Wang / STAFF REPORTER

The Control Yuan yesterday impeached a former Government Information Office (GIO) employee who had published articles online that defamed Taiwan and the Taiwanese.

Control Yuan members voted seven to three in favor of referring Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英), who had worked at Taiwan’s representative office in Toronto, to the Commission on the Disciplinary Sanctions of Functionaries under the Judicial Yuan for punishment.

Yesterday’s decision reversed a July 8 vote rejecting a proposal by Control Yuan member Chien Lin Hui-chun (錢林慧君) to impeach Kuo.

Control Yuan member Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄), one of the members of the government watchdog who investigated Kuo, told a press conference yesterday that despite the importance of freedom of speech, Kuo’s words and behavior had damaged the nation’s dignity and hurt the feelings of Taiwanese.

Chien Lin said the investigation had focused on Kuo’s competence as a public servant.

“When he was working at the GIO offices in Taiwan or abroad, he wrote the articles during office hours,” she said.

“He also deceived his superiors, who had called him on three or four occasions to discourage him from speaking publicly [about the matter] without the consent of his superiors, but he never listened,” Chien Lin said.

Kuo created a stir in Taiwan and abroad earlier this year after it was revealed that he had written a series of online articles ridiculing Taiwan and Taiwanese under the pen name Fan Lan-chin (范蘭欽). In the articles he referred to Taiwanese as taibazi (台巴子), meaning “Taiwanese rednecks” and wokou (倭寇) — “Japanese pirates.”

‘RENEGADE PROVINCE’

“Taiwan is a renegade province of China [sic] and it does not enjoy any sovereignty,” Kuo said in one of his blog entries.

“Taiwan is fortunate because people here are awful,” he said in another entry.

Kuo initially denied he was the author of the articles, but later admitted it during an interview with CTI-TV, saying he “had the right to lie to his enemies.”